I know I am a ‘stormie’ for several reasons, but one of the more amusing is that (sometimes to the annoyance of my wife and even my two daughters) I find myself itching to get outside when it’s raining to see our systems in action and what I can learn. My interest in urban water management came about during university, encouraged by the very passionate (and occasionally controversial) lecturer Michael Mobbs as well as a fascinating capstone project on the stormwater and wastewater reuse system at Taronga Zoo.

My formative years were spent at Patterson Britton & Partners which became part of WorleyParsons, working with strong stormwater mentors Mark Tooker, Mike Shaw and Fiona Coe. I spent a year away as a volunteer for Engineers Without Borders, working on drinking water projects in India (Hyderabad) and Nepal (Bharatpur). After returning to Sydney I jumped at an opportunity to work at Equatica, which later merged with Alluvium.

Ready for a new challenge, around a year ago I started a new company Civille, with Alexa McAuley and David Knights, and we are thrilled with the start we’ve made to integrate our knowledge in stormwater, urban ecology, landscape design, and urban heat, across projects at a range of scales.

In the StormwaterNSW committee I have thoroughly enjoyed my role with the awards, being most impressed with the great work that people across the industry have accomplished. Some award winners are also the work of which I am most proud, including Wangal Park and Mountainview Reserve, and I hope I can add to that list the recently completed Gannons Park.  In the future I am looking forward to calling up more outstanding award winners up to the stage … hopefully the project titles are kept nice and succinct!